1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to an information providing apparatus, an information providing method, and an information providing system that anonymize and provide log information.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, for example, among household electrical and electronic equipment or audio-visual (AV) equipment, the number of pieces of equipment that can connect to networks is increasing. In conjunction with the increase, a scheme in which a cloud service provider collects various types of log information including an operation history of the household electrical and electronic equipment or AV equipment over a network is being studied. The cloud service provider analyzes the collected log information and provides a service and/or utilizes the collected log information for new-product development or marketing strategy.
When the log information is to be provided to a third party, it is necessary to anonymize the log information so that the owner of the data thereof cannot be identified. As a method for the anonymization, there is a scheme called “k-anonymity” for modifying data by erasing a characteristic attribute of the like so that individuals cannot be narrowed down to k or less individuals (see, for example, Intentional Publication No. WO/2011/142327).
However, it is difficult to apply the k-anonymity to information to which content is added over time, like log information.